What do you do when you have an issue with a vendor and your credit card company does not have your back? In July, I made hotel reservations (4 rooms) in New Orleans via telephone. My stay was supposed to start on 8/2/01. I specifically asked the customer service rep what the final cancellation date was, and she told me 8/1/01. When I called on 8/1/01 to cancel, the hotel says that they have a 72 hour cancellation policy. I'm like WTF!! To enusre that my card wouldn't be charged, I went and made a cash advance to max the sucker out (a creditcard company is not supposed to allow your card to go over the limit, and if they do....then not by much). Well, why did Discover allow the hotel to complete the transaction anyway, making me exceed my limit by almost $300 ? To make a long story short, I've gone back and forth with the hotel and Discover about this issue for months. The hotel won't drop the charges (why would they if Discover will make me pay for them....they say there is nothing they can do unless I have the employee on tape saying my cancellation date is 8/01) and Discover claims that there is nothing they can do, even though they allowed me to exceed my credit limit by a large margin. What should I do? I refuse to pay $300 extra bucks for a hotel employee's mistake, especially when I never stayed in the damn hotel in the first place.
If you know an attorney, I would have him/her call the hotel. Lawyers have a way of being more persuasive and they can speak directly to the owner or manager. If it is a chain hotel, you probably can also call their corporate headquarters. Also, I would call Discover and tell them that you are disputing charges. By law, they are required to keep those charges in dispute for a period of time - I'm not sure what the time is, but I remember hearing the BBB talk about 60 days. Check Discover online or your sign up agreement for their rules on disputed charges. Finally, suggest to your attorney (or you can do it on your own) a settlement with the hotel. Pay them for one night, for example. That won't eliminate your cost but it might save you some money.
Well that's the problem....the hotel only charged me for one night, but it was still around $300 because I had four rooms reserved. I already talked to the hotel corporate office and went through the hotel chain of command (even though I haven't written any letters) and they basically told me to piss off. I disputed the charges with Discover twice already, and now they are telling me that they can't get the hotel to drop them, so I'm gonna have to pay for them. I was thinking about not paying the charges, writing letters to Discover and the hotel so I can have them on file, cancelling my discover card, complaining to the BBB or somebody, and then disputing the charges with a credit agency when they came up on my credit report (using letters, etc as proof that the charges were disputed from the jump).
<b>To enusre that my card wouldn't be charged, I went and made a cash advance to max the sucker out (a creditcard company is not supposed to allow your card to go over the limit, and if they do....then not by much). Well, why did Discover allow the hotel to complete the transaction anyway, making me exceed my limit by almost $300 ? </b> All credit card companies I am aware of will allow you to go over your limit, but you need to pay it down to your limit on your next statement. You can cancel your Discover card for your own convictions but it won't impact Discover one iota.
I'm not trying to impact Discover Card. I'm trying to think of steps that I can take so when this issue comes up on my credit report (and it will since I won't pay for the charges), I can show that I have been disputing this issue from day 1, and have some valid proof. True, but usually not by 1/4 of your credit limit ($300/$1200).
For future credit report issues, I would suggest keeping all correspondence. I would certainly write letters to both Discover and the hotel. Keep copies. Generally, if this were the only "hit" on your credit report, mortgage companies are very forgiving. Which hotel is it? The hotels I usually go to all have 24 hour advance cancellation instead of 72 hours.
This is a cool little story from the WSJ.... A Pointed Response When Shane Atchison and Tom Farmer were turned away from a Houston DoubleTree hotel at 2 a.m. last month, they complained -- graphically. Instead of a letter or phone call, the Seattle-based consultants put together a 14-slide PowerPoint presentation with diagrams, a bar-chart illustrating their yearly expenditures on area lodging and a flowchart documenting the rude behavior of "Night Clerk Mike." They e-mailed the presentation to DoubleTree manager Joseph Crosby -- "and to some friends," notes the last slide. "We hope they'll share it with their friends!" They did, apparently. Within days, Mr. Atchison received so many "thousands" of e-mails -- from appreciative business travelers, rival hoteliers and even college business professors -- that he's shutting down his account. The pair also got an apology and an offer of a free stay from Hilton Hotels, which owns DoubleTree. Mr. Crosby, the manager, notes that the night clerk is being retrained. "It was the power of the Internet," says Mr. Atchison. "That really put the pressure on those guys." Here's the slide deck: http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/DoubleTreeShow.ppt
Icehouse, This is from the Texas Attorney General's website. http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/brochure/credit.html <i>Credit Card 'Charge-Backs" If you have a dispute with a merchant in a transaction in which you paid with a credit card (but not a debit card), you may have a right to what is commonly called a "charge-back" from the credit card company. Under federal law, a credit card company is liable to the same extent as the merchant for claims arising out of credit card purchases if: 1. You have made a good faith attempt to resolve the dispute with the merchant; 2. The amount of the transaction exceeds $50; and 3. The transaction occurred within the same state as your billing address or within 100 miles of your billing address. This generally will include mail or telephone purchases made from your home or business. You should be aware that this "charge-back" right is limited to amounts that you have not paid when you give the credit card company notice of the dispute. This means that if you have paid the charge in full, you cannot recover any portion of the charge from the credit card company. In order to preserve your "charge-back" rights, you must deduct from any credit card payments you make the amount attributable to the disputed transaction. You should also be aware that you are not automatically entitled to a "charge-back" every time you have a dispute with a merchant. Federal law puts the credit card company in the merchant's shoes. If the merchant has a defense against your claim, then so does the credit card company. Typically, most credit card companies review each "charge-back" claim on an individual basis. They will only issue a "charge-back" if they believe that your claim has merit and the merchant does not offer a defense. If you disagree with the credit card company's decision, you can take the credit card company to court just as you could the merchant. There is one last twist to the "charge-back" game. The requirement that the transaction be for at least $50 and that it be in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address does not apply if the merchant is the credit card company itself, an affiliate or subsidiary of the credit card company, a franchised dealer of the credit card company's products or services, or if the transaction was the result of a mail solicitation in which the credit card company participated and in which you were solicited to use the company's credit card for the transaction. In these cases, you can seek a "charge-back" regardless of the amount or location of the transaction.</i> I would strongly suggest that you go to Discover online and look at the credit agreement. In addition, I would check with the hotel chain for their official policy on cancellation. One great way to do that is to call the hotel as if you are going to book a reservation and say, "Hi, I want to book a room, but I need to find out what your cancellation policy is because this is a business trip that I'm not sure is going to happen so I need to know how long I have prior to my stay to cancel." When they answer, say, "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind." If they say, 24 hours, you just busted them. It may or may not work but it is worth a shot. Also, consider talking to the hotel manager and say, "Look, this is a screwed up situation. I'll agree to pay you for ONE room if you just agree to ditch full charge." Mainly, find out WTF Discover is doing. They are not supposed to pull that kind of crap on you.
I have a Discover card and I HATE THEM! I'm thinking of cancelling my card. I've been a member since 1991 and they treat me like a stepchild. I called them up last week to try and lower my 21% interest rate. I don't have a balance on my card and havent had one in 6 months. I only keep my Discover as a backup credit card anyways. So I call up customer service and ask them to lower my interest rate. They tell me, "well you had two late payments in 1994 and went over your balance twice in 1992"(That was when I was in college). So I said to them, that was over 7 years ago, why should that matter? I have been current in the last year and haven't had a balance in 6 months. So they said the best they can do is take 10% off my next purchase. Hmmphh! IT DOESNT PAY TO DISCOVER! I stick with American Express. They guarantee your purchases or reservations. You wouldn't have these problems with AMEX. As a matter of fact, they would've taken those charges right off the minute you called AMEX. The yearly fee is worth it. Membership truly has its benefits! Good luck with your problem!
People still have cards with 21% APR's??? Check out juniper.com, chase.com, citibank.com, mbna.com, etc. I have a Discover card too with a 14% APR, but currently have a 7K balance with a 3.9% APR. I bounce credit like a pogo stick, so I rarely stay with one creditor for long, so I constantly reap the rewards of intro rates to pay down my cards. The only one I've kept for a long period of time is my Citibank card with a whopping 9-11% APR.
Credit cards are EVIL! My wife and I haven't used a credit card in over six months and I doubt we ever will again. I just absolutely HATE them now. I'll just save my damn money if I want something expensive. Yesterday, my wife and I went looking for some interior doors to go inside our house. The sales guy really came up with an innovative solution (we have a small house and small door openings) and he gave us a quote. It was expensive but reasonable and he asked me 3 times if I wanted credit. I finally said, "I don't have any credit cards anymore and I don't want any more but thanks." I got the sense he didn't believe that I could afford the doors. So, early next week, I'm going to go back there with a little less than that total amount in my hand in cash and offer it to him for the whole job. Who wants to bet they'll snatch it out of my hands? And I will have saved myself 25% because they already gave me a deal to begin with but cash is VERY hard to resist.
Discover, BTW, also generaly charges the merchants more than either Visa or Mastercard. While it varies, it can be as much as 2x what the others get.
Actually, I never found that to be the case when I acquired a merchant account. What I DID find was that AMEX was more expensive. We pay about 2% for Visa, MC and Discover but over 4% for AMEX!!!
